Weakness I Gladly Bear
by Sammery
Summary: Dairine knows that Roshaun is alive...so where is he? And for what does he return?


Disclaimer: I do not own Young Wizards aside from my copies of each book.

Note: I know that I should be writing my other story, but I've hit a brick wall and am currently experiencing computer difficulties, i.e. it's in the shop. Right now I am on my sister's computer to type this up. This story has been bouncing around my head since I read Wizards at War. Dairine/Roshaun pairing.

Weakness I Gladly Bear

The small form of a red-headed frame curled up next to the rock that, in her blur of tears, she had tripped over. She no longer has the energy to move herself any farther. She no longer had the energy to cry or make any notion that she was alive at all.

"Why…" she croaked out, her voice hoarse from crying. "If you are still alive, why do you not return? To your parents, to your people, to me…" Dairine shoved herself to a seated position, her surging anger granting her strength. "Damn you!" She screamed into the sky. "Damn you and your smug little attitude!" Her voice faltered, and grew quieter as tears again raced down her face, making visible tracks in the moon dust that covered her face. "Damn your strength, and your sense of humor, damn your smile, damn the way you always crunch your lollipops, damn your hair and you fancy clothes, damn everything about you!"

Once again turning her face to the sky, her volume increased, "Damn everything that reminds me of you!" And, in a hoarse whisper, "Damn everything that I loved about you." She was quiet for a long time, then "Why Roshaun…why do you not return…why do you leave me here alone?"

She was kneeling in the exact place she has been that day, the day the Universe proper was saved from a horrible doom…and the day her universe shattered. She starred at the spot he had been standing in as he tried to hold off the impending doom, the spot where he was last seen.

A month had passed since he had disappeared, and her discovery that he was not dead. Every instant that she was not in classes she spent searching for clues to where Roshaun now was. Even the manual had her listed as 'On Sabbatical: No Calls.' But every day that she could not find him her fear grew, her fear that she would never see him again and she was pained by an unexplainable emotion that seemed to burrow itself inside her chest and would not release its hold on her. That fear and uncertainty made her angry, _How dare he not come back, how dare he not return to her!_

When he disappeared she had felt something inside her break. As though she would never be whole again. It was something akin to what she had felt when her mother had died, but something was different. Something that had not occurred to her until now, and what had resulted in her break down here on the surface of the moon.

It was Kit and Nita. The two had finally admitted what everyone else had known for years: they _liked_ each other. Kit had confessed his feelings for her and she had responded by kissing him full on the mouth. They did not know that Dairine had seen them, they didn't know that she was home. Thing is, instead of being happy for them, as she would have been a month earlier, but instead she felt as though someone had wrenched her heart out. The only thing that was coming to her mind was images of Roshaun. That's when it hit her, Roshaun wasn't just a close friend to her, as she had previously maintained, but he was the one that she wanted to be with…she loved him. She wanted what Kit and Nita had with Roshaun. She had fled to the moon immediately, which is where she currently lies.

She lay there, starring up at the Earth, wondering if anybody had noticed she was even gone. She had only maybe half and hour of oxygen left but she made no move to get up or do anything about it. Time continued to pass her by, and yet still she did nothing. With about 5 minutes left she heard something that made her start.

_CRUNCH!_

It sounded like someone was crunching a lollipop…wait…

She sat bolt upright and starred around her. "Roshaun…" she whispered. She stood up and looked about again, "Roshaun," she said again…louder than the first time. "ROSHAUN!" She cried out as loud as she could.

And then her oxygen ran out, and her world went black…

Kit had never felt happier in his life. He had finally admitted to Nita that he liked her…_AND SHE LIKED HIM BACK!_ He could sing he felt so happy. Kit didn't think that he had ever felt a greater joy in his life then when Nita was kissing him and, upon pulling away, proclaimed her feelings for him as well.

Kit was sitting on Nita's couch, alone at the moment as Nita had gone to the bathroom, and was still basking in the glory of his success when he heard it. The car-backfireish clap that comes with the displaced air of a wizard transit.

Curious as to who would be popping into Nita's backyard right now, he got up and headed towards the kitchen door. As he opened the door he could not believe the sight that assailed him. Kneeling in Nita's backyard, cradling an unconscious Dairine in his arms and panting heavily was a disheveled, battered and decidedly worse for the ware Roshaun.

Roshaun looked up and saw Kit starring and called out "Help…" Or at least he tried to call out, but it came out as a coarse whisper, ending in a hacking cough. And then Roshaun collapsed in a heap, unconscious.

Snapping out of his shock, Kit called out "Nita!" as he raced out of the house and down to where Dairine and Roshaun lay, now sprawled out on the lawn. Nita came to the door just as Kit reached the, and he could hear her hasp all the way across the lawn.

Kit reached down and gently disengaged Dairine from Roshaun's arms. He felt for a pulse and found it, her heart beating strongly. She was however, cold to the touch.

Kt looked to Nita, who was looking over Roshaun, who actually looked worse now than Kit had realized when he had first spotted them. All regality was now lost from the alien king. Roshaun's clothing was all but gone. He had no shirt whatsoever and his pants were little better than Daisy Dukes on his right leg, though they managed to go down to his mid thigh on his left. His whole body was covered in scrapes and gashes of varying degrees. Roshaun's hair was also no longer the long tress it had once been. It looked as though hair had been slashed off as various lengths, none of which was longer than his shoulders.

"How is she?" Nita asked Kit, her voice wavering in fear of what he might tell her.

Snapping, once again, back to his senses, he said, "Fine as far as I can tell, if a bit cold."

"He's as cold as ice." Nita said something in the speech under her breath and some of the scrapes that covered his mid-section melded once again into unmarred flesh. "Take her in the house and put her in her bed, make sure that she is covered up good, then call Tom & Carl, tell them what's happened." She then levitated Roshaun and began to lead his form into the house, and Kit, carrying Dairine, was right behind.

Nita took Roshaun to her own room and Kit placed Dari in her bed and tucked her in. He noticed her breathing was slowing into a more normal pace, coming in smoothly now. Satisfied that she was going to be alright, Kit grabbed the phone in the hallway and dialed Carl and Tom's number.

The phone rang three times before an out-of breath Carl finally answered, "Hello," came the distinctly New York voice on the line.

"Hey Carl, its Kit." Carl attempted a greeting but Kit cut him off, "Look, um…Roshaun is here…at Nita's." There was a moment of silence on the line as they both allowed that thought to sink in. "He showed up looking pretty bad in the backyard with Dari, unconscious…she's okay" he quickly interjected before Carl could interrupt, "but we don't know what happened just yet…and…um, we thought you should know…" Kit ended lamely.

The was a very pregnant pause of the other end of the line and then, "…but they're both okay…" came from a very dazed sounding Carl.

"I know Dairine is for sure, and Nita's working on Roshaun."

There was another pause, then, much more firmly then his previous statement he said, "I'm coming right over and I'll leave a note for Tom for when he gets home." Then without a goodbye there was a decisive click and then the dial tone met Kit's ears.

Turning the phone off, he walked into Nita's room to find a far cleaner and healthier looking Roshaun, almost flattened by the amount of blankets on his form as Nita tried to bring his temperature up. Looking up at Nita's harried face he told her about Carl being on the way. "How is he?" He asked.

"I've done everything that I can. I can't find any more injuries, he should be fine once he wakes up." She sighed, "I'm going to go check on Dari."

She left the room and Kit stayed with Roshaun. He took Nita's desk chair and brought it up to Roshaun's bedside to keep vigil. A pop in the backyard alerted them to Carl's arrival and his hurried footsteps brought him right upstairs to the rooms and Dairine and Roshaun were currently in.

They all gathered in Nita's room and Kit told them what little he had to tell of their arrival, and Nita filled Kit and Carl in on their injures, but none of them could make any sense of what had happened.

"We just have to wait until they wake." Carl said softly. And wait they did. They waited the whole night, their little group growing larger as first Tom arrived, then Mr. Callahan and Carmela (once Kit had remembered to call home and inform her as to the plight of her favorite anime-style alien. And, as morning light crept back in to the house, neither of the two had stirred.

Dairine had no idea where she was. She was surrounded by a dense white fog, the fog was so thick that she could not even see her own hand in front of her face. She didn't know where she was, or where she was going, only that she would find something she needed once she got there. So she kept moving forward, even though she couldn't see the ground in front of her and never knew if her next step would be there, so continued on. After what seemed like hours, the fog began to clear, eventually she found herself in a clearing. The clearing was filled with brilliantly white sand and in the center of that clearing was a large tree. An immense weeping willow, whose think, lengthy fronds pooled on the ground, blocking whatever was inside from view. Dairine new that she needed to go inside to find what she needed.

Moving slowly up to the tree, she gently pulled aside the fronds and entered an impossible plain. Where out amidst the fog there had been no sun, here a sun's warm light shinned down happily upon her. The ground was filled with a beautiful field of wildflowers. Where the trunk of the tree should rightfully have been, there was a fountain. She approached the fountain, she realized how thirsty she was. She cupped the water in her hands and a voice intoned in her head, "_Drinking this water will lead you to what you yearn to find…but there is a price to be paid. Can you pay it?_"

"What kind of price?" Dari asked the voice.

"_A steep one, you must give away something precious to find what you seek. Can you do that?_"

"What must I give away…and to whom?"

"_That I cannot tell you, but you must choose quickly, for time is running out…_"

Nita was worried. 'It has been almost 10 hours since they showed up and nothing has changed…'

Suddenly, she heard Carmela shriek. Carmela was watching over Roshaun while Nita was trying to get some rest. Nita launched herself up off of their lumpy couch and raced to her room, along with every other conscious member of the house.

When she got to the room, Nita couldn't understand the shriek, Roshaun looked fine. Then she noticed Carmela's stare only on Roshaun's right hand. The fingers of his hand had begun to go transparent.

"Oh my…" came someone's voice behind her. It was Tom, who had also noticed the change.

"I just glanced down and they were disappearing…" Carmela added staring dumbly.

Kit walked up to his sister and then led her out of the room as Nita closed in on Roshaun, trying to work out what was wrong now. "Someone check on Dairine, see if she's alright." Nita ordered and her dad jumped up to follow, coming back to report that Dairine was still perfectly solid.

'What's going on here?' Nita wondered, 'And will it get better?'

'Have to give away something precious?' Dairine wondered what it could be. She didn't want to give something unknown away. She didn't like the prospect of have to pay an unknown price. Yet she knew that she had to find it, she was too sure was _it_ was exactly, but she knew that she just HAD to find it.

Her entire life had been driven by finding out new information. Always learning something new so that she could cheat the world that would hurt her if she didn't know. SO the knowledge that she had something yet to learn about angered her. "Your price I will pay," she said, bringing the cool water to her lips and gulping it down, "in pursuit of knowledge."

When she opened her eyes, unaware of ever having closed them, she was once again in the clearing of fog, the tree no longer there, just sand. 'What am I to learn here?' she wondered to herself. A warm sensation at her throat drew her attention down to herself as she became aware of an emerald choker around her neck. Suddenly, all her knowledge of Roshaun came rushing back to her, including her startling revelation and the happenings on the moon. 'I ran out of air…am I dead…no, this isn't timeheart…'

She sank to her knees as tears began to flow once again. She didn't notice the appearance of a rather tall man with choppy blond hair and slashed pants and a incredibly worried expression on his face, an expression, one got the impression, which it did not wear often.

Turning, the man laid eyes of the weeping form that was Dairine and an endless relief rushed across his face. Her rushed forward and grabbed the girl's shoulders and forced her to look up.

Dairine's face showed shock and she took in Roshaun's altered appearance, not even noticing his off hair, she took notice only of the usually stoic face rushing through a myriad of emotions.

"Roshaun…" she whispered.

With tears in his eyes, he pulled her close and clutched her to his chest. "You stupid, stupid girl…" he kept repeating over and over, running his hands through her hair and over her back, as though he was making sure she was real.

Dairine was doing the same, not believing she had finally found him, "Roshaun you're here, you came back to me…"

After a few minutes, or hours, or days, they really didn't know, they pulled apart enough so that they could see each others faces, but close enough so that the majorities of their bodies were still touching.

"Why did you do that Dairine?" He whispered, voice fill of sorrow, "Why did you let your oxygen run out?"

Dairine honestly did not know the answer other than, "I couldn't find the will to do anything about it."

"Dairine, you scared me," he spoke softly, holding her head against his shoulder and stroking her hair gently, "I was there. I was there the whole time you were crying….and I couldn't comfort you, and the you were angry…you seemed to hate me…"

"I could never hate you," Dairine interrupted. "Why did you never come back?" Dairine demanded, now defensive.

He leveled her with a gaze so full of emotion she was amazed that he didn't bust.

"Don't you think I would have if u could have! The amount of energy that filled he that night…it was more than my body could handle, it broke the bonds between my particles…" he grew quiet. "The…uh, the Powers…they allowed me the chance to come back. I still had a consciousness, I was aware of what was going on, but I didn't have a body yet to house it. My body still needed time to regenerate…but then you were in distress…"

Dairine blushed a little bit at the wry look that he now threw her. "I did try to let you know that I was there…"

"The crunch…"

"Yea…but then your oxygen ran out…so I, uh…well…"

"Oh, out with it already!" Dairine exclaimed after a few moments of this stuttering.

"I forced myself back into existence to early." He was quiet for a long time, and then, "I saved you, I got you home…but now I'll fade away, and this time I can't return." His statement was said with a strictly controlled voice, one that was not letting any emotion reveal itself, though the unshed tears in his eyes spoke of great sorrow.

Dairine sat in shock, 'my fault' kept running through her mind. 'He had a chance to return, a chance not given lightly, and I blew it for him.' Tears again began to creep down her face. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "It's all my fault. You're going to die and it's all my fault."

"Don't be silly, " he said, that old pompous note adding itself again, "I made the choice to do it, so if there is fault to lie, it goes solely to me." He said, staring out into the fog, and away from Dairine.

"But you could've gone back to your parents…and your people…"

"But you couldn't have been there…" he said, voice soft and gentle, "I…well, I wouldn't want to return to a….well, a place without you in it…" He looked at Dairine again, and she could not read the emotion there, thought there was a slight blush to his cheeks. "Dari, I…well I…uh…"

Without waiting for the flustered king to finish his sentence, she grasped his shoulders, pulled herself up to his face and pressed her lips against his, thinking 'Well it worked for Nita.'

At first Roshaun appeared shocked and tensed up considerably. Then slowly, his arms came up and help Dairine close to him as he returned the kiss with as much passion and vigor as Dairine was putting into it.

Dairine couldn't believe that it was happening. She was kissing Roshaun and he was kissing back. Then a frightening thought took hold of her, 'This is my first and last kiss with Roshaun.' Immediately she broke away and started crying into Roshaun's chest.

"What's wrong?" He asked, sounding fairly dazed and confused.

"We won't…sniff…won't be able to do that again, not for real…" she sobbed.

He cradled her against him and slowly made his way down towards the ground, still holding her, uttering soothing phrases will he did so.

Suddenly, the world stopped. Roshaun's hand froze mid-stroke, and stopped speaking mid-syllable. Dairine shot up scared and confused.

"_You were told that you would have to give something precious for what you seek…_"

"But I've already found him and I haven't yet given anything…"

"_It was not the boy himself you sought, but his love, and his life…these must be giving equally. You must also give your love, heart, life to him…could you do that?_"

Dairine never faltered, "Of coarse I can. I could give anything if it means to earn his love."

_"His love you have child, it's his life you are losing…by projecting himself so early he never finished forming and his essence cannot remain in a partial shell. In order to save his life you must give him part of your."_

During Dairine's ordeal, Nita had used a shield spell that used her life energy, Dairine suspected that this would be much the same. Losing years of her life to gain life to him.

As though reading her thoughts, the bodiless voice responded _"That's much the principal yes…"_

"How?" Dairine asked, "What do I need to do in order to do this?"

_"All you must do is grant him your life essence…"_

"But how do I do that?" Dairine questioned.

"_Think of it like you're in _Snow White_ or _Sleeping Beauty…"

The stories that her mother used to read to her when she was going to sleep flashed through her mind. "Wait, you mean I have to kiss him…but I already did that…"

_"It must be done in your corporal forms, not here in this dream state. Now go and do it, before it's too late. The hour grows late…"_

And time ran forward again.

Roshaun looked shocked at how she had moved to far so quickly. "How did…?" He asked, getting up himself.

'How do I wake up?' She wondered…then it came to her that she had to go back the way she came…and quickly.

She came to this knowledge just as Roshaun once again held her in a bone crushing hug. She had to leave now, she had to leave Roshaun to save him. His embrace felt so right, like they had been made solely for each other.

She tore herself away from him and winced at the heartbroken look on his face. "I'm sorry," she whispered and she raced out of the clearing, into the dense fog, her own heart breaking at Roshaun's anguished cries behind her.

'If this is the right thing to do, why does it hurt so much?' Yet she raced on…and the fog began to get brighter…and brighter…until there was no fog and only blinding light…

…and she awoke in her bed and shot straight up…under the crushing weight of multiple comforters. Throwing them off herself (and onto a dumbfounded Carmela), she raced from her room to Nita's when she somehow knew Roshaun would be.

Upon entering the room she was faced with the shocked expressions of Nita, Kit, her father, Roshaun's parents, and Tom and Carl…and ignored all of them. Rather, she focused all her attentions on Roshaun and gasped. Saying that he was as transparent as a ghost didn't quite cover it. Casper had more substantiality that Roshaun. She ran to his side, ignoring the jumble of words that were coming from everyone else in the room, they were all just noise. Hoping she wasn't too late, she leaned down and pressed her lips against his.

'I was never one to like those sappy fairy tales, but please…to any Power that's listening, may he be healed.'

The shock had not worn off Kit from the supposedly comatose Dairine bursting through the door. Then he noticed that she was kissing Roshaun. He glanced up at Nita who looked as confused as him. He was about to ask Dairine just what she was doing…when it happened.

They both started glowing a faint pink. Starting at his mouth and then rushing out to the rest of his body was a pink ripple and everywhere it past became solid again. Slowly the pink light died out and Dairine pulled away, watching anxiously, as was everyone else in the room.

…And a cough again sounded from Roshaun's body. Not a I-can't-breathe cough like earlier, but a I-have-something-in-my-throat cough.

Crying now with joy, Dairine through herself at Roshaun and hugged him tight, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, Roshaun's arms came up and encircled her form and hugged back just as tightly as his eyes opened. Sparkling a little more than Kit could ever remember them doing.

Watching everyone in the room, especially Roshaun's parents, celebrating this miraculous event, Kit wanted to know what had happened.

Calming down a bit, she released Roshaun enough so that she could settle down in the bed next to him, which was good because to appeared as though Roshaun wasn't going to be letting her go anytime soon. She explained about how she had let her oxygen run out (to be berated by everyone in the room) and what Roshaun did to save her. Then she explained the basics of the dream, that the voice had told her that to save Roshaun she had to kiss him and give him some of her life force.

Eventually the wizards and family decided to leave the room and let the duo rest up a bit. Dairine was lying contently, molded into the crook of Roshaun's arm, thoroughly enjoying him running his fingers through her hair when he said, "You left some stuff out…" He himself sounding highly content with the situation.

"I didn't want to tell them some of the things without talking about them with you first." She replied, lazily drawing circles on his chest.

"Alright, well, let's start with the 'Damn you' part…" he spoke with barely suppressed mirth and mild curiosity.

Dairine blushed, embarrassed that he had seen that. "I was so angry and frustrated at how you made me feel, I could forget everything else in the world just for your smile. And I hated that, that I could be so weak as to succumb to that sort of sappy emotion like love," she paused to see his reaction to that world, when he didn't go into a tirade she continued, "and especially because I wanted to so badly….and you weren't there."

"Well," he said, propping himself up on his elbow and facing Dairine, "if love is a weakness, it is one that I gladly bear." And with that he closed the distance between them and they kissed again.

Later, once again contentedly cuddled against each other, Roshaun whispered "_I love you_." In the speech.

Dairine froze, 'He just told me that he loves me in the one language that you cannot lie in.'

Looking up at his apprehensive face, she whispered "_I love you too."_ Thus sealing themselves to each other for the rest of their lives.

The two lovers smiled contentedly at one another and cuddled up against each other and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Kit was sitting calmly in Nita's kitchen along with everyone else, waiting for the two love birds to come down. He had gone in to check on them last night and found them sleeping, still clinging to each other.

Footsteps on the stairs warned them of the incoming duo. Smirking Kit turned to face the doorway. But before they could see them they heard them…

"I'm not do sure about this…" came Roshaun's voice in a unusually unsure way.

"You look fine, besides its better than it looked before…"

And Dairine walked into the kitchen, still wearing the same clothes and…was stopped suddenly and Roshaun, who was holding her right hand and not coming into view of the doorway.

Kit was shocked at Roshaun seeming in any way, shape, or form shy. And by the faces of everyone else in the kitchen, he was not the only one.

Dairine rolled her eyes and muttered, "Honestly…" and the proceeded to yank Roshaun into view…and Kit couldn't help but laugh.

The boy who was well known for his long blond hair and wearing arrogance like a cloak not stood in the Callahan kitchen, fidgeting under the gazes of everyone in the room with his hair cut short to fall at his ears.

When his laugh sounded, Roshaun leveled a fierce gaze at Kit but it didn't affect Kit at all. Soon everyone in the room, including Roshaun's parents were laughing at the poor king.

A furious blush raged over his face and he starred at the floor saying, "I knew I shouldn't have let you do this…"

Dairine smirked and pulled his head towards her and says softly, "Like you had a choice…" and then she leans up and kissed him gently…

…and the kiss kept going for a while and Carl let out a wolf whistle that broke the moment and Dairine and Roshaun break away laughing and brushing lightly.

Then joining everyone else at the table they ate breakfast, with Dairine constantly snatching lollipops away from Roshaun ("Honestly you're like a child…") and him always pulling out another one.

Kit sat in amazement with how causal the alien king could now be. He watched as Roshaun snatched a lollipop back from Dairine and, laughing, bopped her on the nose with it before popping it back in his mouth.

He felt a hand brush his arm and looked up and saw Nita there, smiling sweetly at him, also looking at the happy couple.

She leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Guess we weren't the only one's who confessed…" Kissing him gently on the check (causing Carmela now to wolf whistle), the happy group sat enjoyed breakfast.

THE END

Wow, that was a lot to write in one sitting….phew…

HAPPY 2006 EVERYONE!

Please review


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